Roses In The Snow

We had our first snow of the season, and I'm obsessed with the cold and colorless contrast of it against my still very much alive and colorful rose bushes.

Also, I keep hearing Bette Midler's song "The Rose"playing on repeat in muh brain.

I am filled with such beautiful sadness when I see these ladies start to go. I love these roses. They have been the most aggravating, obnoxious, surprising and gorgeous plants I have ever grown. Each fall as snowy weather approaches, I find myself wondering if these prissy beauties will make it through the winter and return to their former glory the following spring. So far, each one has persevered, though it has been a harder row to hoe for some than it has been for others. Half of them appeared dead well into Spring this year, but made Lazarus like comebacks by Summer. One even came back a deep red climber, whereas it has been a coral colored Marmalade Skies rose when first planted.

If I had it to do over, I don't think I would mess with ornamental roses. I'd use the space for something less finicky and more edible, that really earns it keep.

On the other hand, I don't think I have ever grown anything which has beaten me upside the head with beauty and scent and wonder until I had absolutely no choice but to appreciate it's temperamental nature as a part of it's unique and worthwhile thumbprint on the earth. Because if we're being honest, you gotta admit, roses just make a person happy. And bees and butterflies and Japanese beetles too.

 So today I am admiring my ladies in their new coats, and bidding them sweet dreams as they prepare to enter their well earned states of winter slumber.

Here's hoping they(and I!) will awaken next Spring with all the tenacity and vigor that surviving another Iowa winter brings.